It’s sure to be welcome news for fully vaccinated individuals and families looking to book some much needed end-of-the-year holiday time!

Tourism Malaysia and the Malaysia Inbound Chinese Association (MICA) have come together to officiate the launching of a Covid-19 Destination Programme that has selected Langkawi and Kuching as travel-safe destinations in the country.

The new travel programme was presented over the weekend via a virtual launch in collaboration with GoTraz Sdn Bhd, a tourism-based entity that promotes virtual and real-world tourism activities.

Speaking at the live virtual event on Facebook on August 20, 2021, Tourism Malaysia director-general Zulkifly Md Said that the programme would eventually be expanded to include popular resort islands such as Pulau Redang, Pulau Perhentian, and Pulau Tioman as well as other attractions in states such as Johor, Melaka, Penang, and Sabah.

“Tourism Malaysia will position Malaysia as the Top-of-the-Mind Ecotourism Destination of the World as part of its long-term promotional efforts.

“In terms of the abundance of land and natural landscapes, Malaysia should be able to compete directly with other eco destinations,” Zulkifli said.

Zulkifli also noted that the tourism challenges faced by the country hinges on how the approach to global travel can be reinvented in order to promote long-term success, and not just on temporary recovery.

With him was MICA president Datuk Dr Angie Ng who added that the one-year joint collaboration with GoTraZ will showcase 52 weekly programmes on eight tourism themes being mountains, tropical forests, hotels & resorts, self-driving tours, InstaGram spots, cuisines, scuba diving and islands.

GoTraz founder and Amleisure Group chief executive officer, Ada Poon, elaborated further on virtual tourism highlighting how entrepreneurs spurring the movement have a higher chance at having their businesses pick up once more vaccinated people are allowed to travel again.

“Besides focusing on travel destinations and exciting leisure activities, there will also be presentations by tour guides on their insights and experiences,” she added, saying that the programme, which would be from 8pm to 9pm every Friday, was expected to attract some 700,000 viewers from Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

“Advances in technological developments and greater Internet usage around the world have enabled virtual tourism, also known as smart tourism, to be used in many facets of our exciting travel and tourism industry,” said Poon.

“With the Covid-19 pandemic restricting where and when people can go, this has necessitated that hotels, destinations and other industry players to begin employing more creative ideas to set new trends,” she added.